For most of the National Trust’s existence, its grants programs have provided a crucial lifeline to America’s historic places. To mark the organization’s 75th anniversary year, we explore three sites where National Trust grants have made a difference and learn how they’re taking on the challenges of the moment.

Glessner House, Chicago

With its massive, rusticated granite blocks, Richardsonian Romanesque arches, and cozy interior brimming with original furnishings, Chicago’s Glessner House defies typical Victorian-era architecture. Its imposing exterior conceals a warm and inviting interior created for the close-knit Glessner family: John J. Glessner, a partner in a large farm equipment company; his wife, Frances Macbeth Glessner, and their two children.

Designed by the renowned American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the 17,000-square-foot mansion was completed in 1887. It’s located on Prairie Avenue, once home to the city’s elite. After John’s death in 1936, the house passed through various owners. In 1966, a group now called the Chicago Architecture Center formed for the purpose of saving the endangered house. It opened to the public a few years later, and the National Trust aided the cause by providing grants in 1970 and 1992. Glessner House became an independent nonprofit in 1994, and today it continues its commitment to preserving the Gilded Age jewel.

Perhaps the most notable recent project at the property is the installation of a geothermal heating and cooling system, with the ultimate goal of reducing the museum’s carbon footprint and ensuring a stable environment for preserving its collections. “In August 2024, we disconnected our natural gas service,” says Executive Director and Curator William Tyre. “It was exciting for two reasons: first of all, because we no longer rely on gas, but also because we had reached the end of the very long process of replacing the system with a greener alternative. It’s the perfect example of how a historic building can adapt to modern, green technology.”

A 2023 grant from the National Trust funded a feasibility study to render an entrance to Glessner House’s visitors center fully accessible. Chicago-area firm REVIVE Architecture designed an interior ramp with minimal visual impact. The proposal has been approved by the Landmarks Illinois Preservation Easement Committee, and Glessner House will soon begin fundraising to carry out the project.

The museum also completed a quest in 2023–24 to re-create the dining room furniture, which was lost in the 1960s. The quartersawn white oak sideboard, dining table, and 18 chairs were designed in 1887 by H.H. Richardson’s office and subsequently made by A.H. Davenport and Company. “The original dining room pieces were in place when the Glessners moved into the home in December 1887,” says Tyre. Master woodcarver, sculptor, designer, and furniture maker Patrick Burke analyzed surviving historical photos and meticulously re-created the pieces. —Amy Bizzarri

Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

On the coast of New Hampshire, a historic settlement in Portsmouth (shown at top) now functions as a nearly 9-acre museum. Since 1965, Strawbery Banke Museum has been telling the story of Puddle Dock, a diverse, working-class community that thrived between the 17th and early 20th centuries.

The site reveals its past through preserved historic structures and gardens, period collections, and archaeology. Most of its approximately 30 structures have remained in their original locations, including the Sherburne House, a circa 1695 two-story, wood-framed residence for which the museum received a 2013 National Trust grant toward a restoration feasibility study. In 2022 and 2023, the house was reclad with pine clapboards sealed in a traditional mixture of turpentine, pine tar, and linseed oil. Part of its interior will become exhibition space for period objects, says Strawbery Banke Chief Curator Elizabeth Farish, and another section will be furnished as a late-1600s domestic space. Additional preservation projects at the site include the reconstruction of an arbor for grapevines and hops at the Aldrich House (circa 1797), and carpentry work at the Rider-Wood House (circa 1800).

Managing the effects of climate change is another museum priority. Parts of the neighborhood once served as a tidal estuary; by 1904, the inlet was filled in to create more buildable land. With sea level rise, many buildings regularly experience water intrusion or extreme dampness in their basements, which accelerates the deterioration of structural wood and masonry elements and paint finishes. The museum is adapting its historic structures for increases in both groundwater levels and surface water flooding, says Director of Environmental Sustainability Rodney Rowland. For example, in the circa 1750 Penhallow House, the museum installed a wetproof basement that allows water to flow in and drain out freely. Through a partnership with the University of New Hampshire Geospatial Science Center, Strawbery Banke is installing sensors in basements and ground wells to collect water depth, temperature, and salinity data to help guide its resiliency plan.

Rowland sees the museum’s parallel efforts to teach history and adopt modern resiliency strategies as complementary. “If we can manage our stormwater but also re-envision what Puddle Dock might have looked like,” he says, “that’s a huge win.” —Wanda Lau

Cape May City Library, Cape May, New Jersey

In 1995, a racially diverse group of 12 women in Cape May, New Jersey, founded a nonprofit to provide local arts programming and activities, especially for underserved populations. Known as the Center for Community Arts (CCA), the organization developed popular, successful initiatives, and the founders hoped to create a dedicated space for their work. They identified the perfect building: the Franklin Street School, opened in 1928 for Black students in grades K–8. The sturdy Colonial Revival–style structure served this purpose through the late 1940s, but it had been underused and undermaintained since then.

The beachside city of Cape May leased the building to CCA, which raised over $1.5 million to preserve it, including roughly $40,000 in grants from the National Trust. “We worked on it for several years,” says David Mackenzie, CCA’s executive director. “We got through environmental remediation and some initial stabilization work. [Restoring] windows, fixing some of the cement work, and the like.”

Eventually, though, the rehabilitation project became too heavy of a lift for the group to continue. The city considered various options for how it might repurpose the school, and when the idea of using it for a new public library came up, “the county warmed to it quickly,” Mackenzie says. Cape May County continued the work CCA had set in motion, hiring the same architect, Michael Calafati.